


...I'm in Love

by GinnyRose



Series: Peter Parker: Disaster Bi Extraordinaire [4]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Bisexual Peter Parker, Canon Compliant, Fluff, Gen, Humor, LGBTQ Themes, Mentor Tony Stark, Oblivious Peter Parker, Peter Parker Has a Huge Crush, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Pre-Slash, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 15:27:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14936912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GinnyRose/pseuds/GinnyRose
Summary: “No puppy dog eyes. You can either tell me, who you only see once a week and who can then teach you awesome stuff until you forget your problems, or you can tell your Aunt who you see every single day and who would probably make you talk about your feelings afterwards. Choose now. You have until the count of five.”“Mr. Stark, really, you don’t want to hear abou-” Peter tried, raising his hands up in a placating gesture.“One.”“Honestly, it’s not a big deal!” Peter gestured wildly, nearly knocking his hand into Mr. Stark.“Two.”Or: Peter has been struggling all week with his feelings and refuses to talk to anyone about it. Tony Stark is having none of that.





	...I'm in Love

**Author's Note:**

> This is the fourth work in this series and it takes place directly after the third one (I Won't Say It), so it might be best to read that one first. The first two in the series are completely stand-alone.

Peter was unusually quiet as he slid into the backseat of Happy’s car. It was Sunday, which meant that he was going to spend the whole day in Mr. Stark’s lab, working with him on various small projects. Today, probably to make up for Mr. Stark’s being out of town last week, Peter was going to be allowed to begin developing the plans for his very own robot. This should have had Peter bouncing in his seat in excitement as he talked Happy’s ear off about all the cool things he was going to develop and what he was going to name it when he was done but, instead, he had merely mumbled a soft hello before he had begun staring out the window.

It wasn’t that Peter didn’t want to go spend time with Mr. Stark – he had grown really fond of the special one-on-one time he had with his mentor – it was just that he had been distracted all week and today was no different. It had been exactly one week ago that Karen had suggested that Peter had feelings for Ned and, despite finding them completely ridiculous, Peter hadn’t been quite able to get them out of his head. He had begun paying a lot attention to Ned and overanalyzing everything they did together to the point that he had not been able to focus on anything or anyone else all week.

It had started the same night that Karen had suggested he had feelings for Ned. They had played video games for hours, until May had gotten home, and it hadn’t been weird. But then May had invited Ned to eat with them and dinner had turned into Ned staying the night and Peter had felt self-conscious about sharing his room with the other boy. Which had been ridiculous – he and Ned had held sleepovers at each other’s respective apartments since they were deemed old enough in the first grade and Peter had never felt self-conscious about it. Not even that one time in middle school when they had snuck in an R-rated movie to watch and ended up cuddling together under the same blankets because they were too frightened to get off the bed.

There had been no reason for Peter to be uncomfortable in sharing his room with Ned but when it came time to get ready for bed, Peter had found himself unable to stop the blush from his cheeks when Ned had begun changing into the spare set of clothes he kept in Peter’s room and had to excuse himself to the bathroom to change into his own pajamas. It had been a very strange experience – Ned was the only person Peter had never felt self-conscious about changing in front of and he had certainly never _blushed_ when Ned changed in front of him before.

Initially, he had blamed Karen. It had been the AI who put the ridiculous notion of liking Ned in his head and it was perfectly logical for him to be a little embarrassed around Ned with the conversation still fresh in his mind. He had gone to bed assuming the awkwardness would disappear in the morning and everything would be back to normal.

But it hadn’t disappeared. Instead, it had gotten _worse_.

Peter had taken the top bunk of his bed, as he often did when Ned stayed over because of his friend’s extreme fear of heights – the boy had the irrational fear that he would somehow fall off the bed despite the guardrail set up and it was easier for Peter to acquiesce his own bed than push Ned out of his comfort zone. Normally, of course, he didn’t think twice about it but that night he had lain awake hours after Ned had nodded off, overly aware of both how close his friend was and the fact that Ned was sleeping in just a t-shirt and boxers.

Then, when Peter had awoken – before his friend, surprisingly – he had tried to make his way quietly to the bathroom but had gotten distracted looking at Ned’s sleeping form. The other boy was turned on his side and had curled himself up against the wall with the blankets tucked up under his chin. His hair, normally brushed off to the sides, had been covering his face and Peter had felt the urge to brush the strands out of the other boy’s eyes. Which was 100% _not_ a normal urge to have about one’s best friend. Peter had felt both wholly embarrassed and incredibly stalkerish as he fled out of the room and into the safety of the blissfully Ned-free hallway.

Peter had hoped the weirdness would have disappeared after Ned woke up but Peter found himself noticing things about the other boy that he hadn’t before. Or at least, things that he hadn’t realized he noticed before.

Like how Ned’s hair curled slightly around his ears after he’d washed it.

Or the way Ned smiled at him– fully with all his teeth showing, as though Peter was the highlight of his day.

Or how Ned’s eyes, dark brown, had small rings of lighter brown around the edges.

Or how Ned was always _touching_ him. It was never an intrusive touch – a light tap on his hand to get his attention, a playful nudge to his shoulder as they joked around, a brush of their hips together as Ned tried to nudge past him for something, the tickle of Ned’s fingers on his hand as they did their handshake together – but now it sent a jolt through Peter every time he felt them.

These were things Peter had always been aware of but now he seemed hyper-focused on them, as if his enhanced senses were attuned specifically to his best friend and Peter had no way to turn it off.

All week, Peter had been noticing these things while Karen’s words played in the background and he found himself questioning everything. Did Ned smile at others the way he smiled at Peter? Did Peter have his own smile reserved for Ned? Was it normal that he not only noticed the exact color of his best friend’s eyes but that he also thought they were really pretty? Was it normal that he not only noticed that Ned’s hair curled when wet, but that it also had a tendency to curve outward when it was dry if Ned didn’t comb it first? Was the amount of touches they shared normal? Or was it different with other friends?

Was it normal to talk about Ned as much as he did? Was it normal to feel a little empty when Ned wasn’t in class? Was it normal to find one’s best friend as cute as Peter found Ned? Had it been normal for Peter to feel upset when he thought Ned was on a date with Nick?

These questions and others had plagued Peter all week, leaving him distracted and a little withdrawn. It had been bad enough that, by the middle of the week, Ned had been asking him if something had happened on one of his patrols and Peter had been forced to come up with some story about a little kid being lost in the park and how difficult it had been to find their parents. Ned knew that hurt or lost children always got to Peter, even if it was something minor. Peter had felt guilty for lying but it wasn’t like he could tell his friend the truth. There was no good way to explain to his best friend that Peter had been so upset thinking Ned was on a date that his AI had suggested he had feelings for him and now Peter couldn’t shake the idea of it out of his mind.

And that was the true crux of the matter. It wasn’t so much that Karen had suggested the idea, although Peter had certainly blamed her for his current predicament and planned to continue to, but that it might be _true_. The only other person Peter had noticed these things about had been Liz and even when he was crushing on her hard, she hadn’t been all he was thinking about. But now, Ned was all Peter thought about and it was driving him _insane_.

It wasn’t even that Peter was opposed to liking Ned. Ned was smart and sweet; he was always down for putting together Legos or puzzles or staging mock battles with Star Wars or Avengers mini-figures even though other people thought they were too old for silly games. He always made Peter laugh and he knew what to say to bring a smile to his face, even on Peter’s bad days. He was always willing to talk about Peter’s Spider-Man duties and he never judged him for his mishaps (although Peter had caught him laughing at compilation videos of Spider-Man fails on Youtube several times). He was also, Peter had to admit, very cute.

No, there was nothing objectively wrong with liking Ned – he was the type of person anyone would be lucky to date, in Peter’s totally unbiased opinion. That wasn’t the problem.

The problem was that it was _Ned_. Peter’s best friend since kindergarten. The boy who had gone to all of Peter’s birthday parties even when no other child had shown up. The boy whom he had learned to swim with and with whom he had learned to read. The boy who had seen every Harry Potter and Star Wars movie with him. The boy who Peter had shared his nightmares with after the Stark Expo fiasco, when Peter had belatedly learned to be afraid of the robot that had nearly killed him. The boy who Peter had called at the hospital, sobbing, after Ben had died because Peter hadn’t wanted to break down in front of May but he had needed someone to talk to anyway because it had felt like he was drowning and he knew Ned would help him stay afloat. Ned was Peter’s best friend; Peter loved him as his best friend. He couldn’t love him romantically as well.

He just couldn’t. It went against the first and most important best friend rule.

One did not develop romantic feelings for their best friend.

It had bothered Peter enough that he had nearly asked May about it at dinner the night before. They had been sitting together at the small kitchen table, an abundance of Chinese take-away containers in front of them and May had been talking about this sweet older man who had come in to the hospital. Peter had only been paying half-attention while he picked at his orange chicken and wondered if it was normal friendship behavior to know that Ned’s second favorite color was orange but that he hated the fruit because he had once been squirted in the eye by one in the second grade and had never quite gotten over it.

May had noticed, of course, because it was her job to notice when Peter was acting weird and she had asked him what was wrong. It had been the perfect opportunity to ask for advice – May had been wonderful when Peter needed help getting ready to take Liz to Homecoming, but Peter had found that the words were stuck in his throat. Saying it out loud meant it was a little more real than it was when it was all in his head and Peter couldn’t quite bring himself to ask May for her opinion. There was no way May wouldn’t want to know who it was he was talking about and Peter would rather die than have his aunt freak out over a possible crush he may or may not have for Ned. Especially because it was probably nothing but some silly idea Karen had put in his head.

So he had told her the same story he had told Ned about the little kid in the park. May had seemed skeptical – she could always tell when Peter was lying but she rarely ever called him out on it, preferring to allow Peter the chance to tell her in his own time – but she let it go. Peter had excused himself early and fled to his room on the pretense of needing some extra sleep to be prepared for the internship the next day.

And he had ended up staying awake until nearly three in the morning, thinking about Ned.

Which is how he wound up sitting in the back of Mr. Stark’s car, tired and exhausted, staring out the window silently rather than peppering Happy with a thousand and one questions and trying to not think about how he had Ned’s weekend routine down to the point that he knew the other boy was probably just waking up now after spending all of Saturday night tinkering with new projects on his computer.

“Something bothering you, kid?” Happy’s slightly gruff voice dragged Peter from his thoughts and he tore his gaze from the passing buildings to glance up at Happy. The older man had his eyes focused on the road but Peter knew from experience that when Happy willingly asked Peter a question, he expected an answer.

“Nothing’s wrong.” Peter responded, quietly. Happy glanced up at him through the rear-view mirror, eyebrows raised in the universal look for ‘your-full-of-shit-kid’.

“Really? You’ve never been quiet a day in your life. You are normally so excited I want to throw you out of the car, yet you’re just sitting there, silent. Usually, I’d count it as a damn blessing, you talk so much, but the last time you were this quiet, it was because you’d gotten yourself stabbed and didn’t want anyone to know.” Peter could hear the annoyance in Happy’s voice as they both remembered that day, nearly two months ago now. It had been the first serious wound Peter had gotten after getting the suit back and he hadn’t wanted anyone to know because he’d been scared Mr. Stark would be angry that Peter had been stupid enough to get hurt and take the suit away again. Besides Peter healed quickly and the wound had been mostly closed.

Of course, _mostly_ closed didn’t amount to much after Peter had pulled too hard on the skin as he got out of the car and it had begun to bleed anew onto his shirt. The panic Peter had caused that day at Stark Industries was legendary after Happy had barreled into the building with a protesting Peter securely cradled in his arms, demanding both Tony Stark and a medic. For someone who was the Head of Security for a guy as reckless as Tony Stark, Happy sure didn’t know how to handle what Peter had considered a minor stab wound.

“It’s nothing like that, Happy.” Peter said. He had no desire to continue the conversation – the very idea of opening up to Happy about Ned-related was laughable. Happy was not a sharing person and he’d probably have a mini- coronary if Peter asked him for advice about _feelings_.

“Is it Spider-Man related? You have to tell me if we have another Moving Day situation on our hands.” Happy was glancing up at Peter again, a slight suspicion evident in his eyes. Peter barely resisted the urge to remind Happy that Moving Day wouldn’t have been as big of a deal if he had just answered his phone when Ned called. Picking fights with the guy who drove him to and from his internship and who had no problems pulling over and leaving Peter to walk the rest of the way if he irritated him enough was never a smart idea.

“It’s nothing Spider-Man related. Just some teenager stuff.” Peter knew the easiest way to get Happy to drop a conversation was to make it personal. Peter had a sneaking suspicion that if he really needed help, Happy would be there for him but that didn’t make the man good at dealing with the everyday problems of a fifteen-year-old. Even if that fifteen-year-old moonlighted on the side as an almost-Avenger. Happy shot him one more glance in the rearview mirror, ostensibly checking to see if he could catch a lie on Peter’s face, but he didn’t say anything more, apparently satisfied that Peter wasn’t secretly bleeding out in his backseat or hiding confiscated alien tech from him.

The rest of the trip lapsed back into silence. Peter knew he needed to get his thoughts together before meeting with Mr. Stark – there was no way the older man would stand for distraction in the lab, not when half the things in there could harm either of them easily and especially not when anything that happened to Peter would be relayed back to a very pissed Aunt May. Peter was pretty sure Tony Stark had one fear and that fear was his aunt. Mr. Stark could handle violent aliens and power-hungry maniacs but he was completely ill-equipped to handle irate women.

No, if Peter was distracted in the lab, Mr. Stark would probably kick him out of it. And then Peter would be left with nothing to distract him from his thoughts for the rest of the day. He needed to get it together and not think about Ned or what Karen had said about Ned. It shouldn’t be so damn difficult. Peter was still struggling to dispel thoughts of Ned from his head when Happy pulled the car up to the Stark Industries building and shooed Peter from the car with an impatient gesture.

The New York City division of Stark Industries had originally been stationed in Avengers Tower but after Tony had sold the building, he had bought a smaller one to house the non-Avengers related materials as well as offices and meeting rooms. Peter had never been in the labs up in the Upstate Compound, where Mr. Stark worked on his own suits and other Avengers materials, but the ones in the Stark Industries building were more than enough to amaze the boy. He was normally bouncing on his feet on the days that he got to work in them.

Today, though, Peter entered the building subdued and passed through security with small, quiet smiles rather than his usual chatty greetings. If the security guards noticed the difference, none of them said anything for which Peter was grateful. He really wanted people to stop pointing out how weird he was being. It only meant Peter would dwell on why he was behaving abnormally and send him back down the rabbit hole that had become his and Ned’s friendship.

Peter swiped the access badge that Mr. Stark had given him across the pad in front of the elevator as he tried to psyche himself up for the day in the lab. But then he thought about how excited Ned would be if he were here and he was so caught up wondering if it was normal best friend behavior to think about how adorable Ned was when he was fanboying about things that he missed the elevator arriving and only noticed it was open when a woman behind him cleared her throat loudly.

“Sorry!” Peter mumbled as he darted into the elevator, checks red. “Um… what floor?” He asked after he had pressed the button for the topmost level for himself, trying to be polite. The woman looked at him for a long moment before reaching over and pressing the button for the third floor herself. Peter’s flush brightened and he looked down at his shoes. Trust him to be so distracted that he embarrassed himself in front of one of Mr. Stark’s employees. Most people here already thought Peter didn’t belong – he was too young, too inexperienced – and he was sure that woman was going to go to her floor and talk about how scatterbrained Tony Stark’s latest intern was.

The woman got off on her floor without a backwards glance at Peter and he sighed quietly in relief. The sheer disapproval that woman had felt for him had been enough to make the air itself heavy. Peter was used to that kind of feeling around Stark Industries but it always sucked to be in a place where no one thought he belonged. Normally, Peter would have texted Ned about the experience so they could complain about stupid adults together but he hadn’t instigated a text conversation with Ned all week, and he felt too awkward to start one now.

It wasn’t that he was avoiding Ned – he had answered all the texts the other boy sent and talked to him at school and during their Academic Decathlon practices– it was just that Peter had taken to second-guessing everything he said to his friend over the past week and he didn’t want to embarrass himself by saying something weird now. It was fairly obvious, even to Peter, that the whole situation was a ridiculous mess. He had spoken to Ned for years and had never said anything too strange to his friend – Ned was definitely the one who couldn’t filter the weirdness out of his statements anyway – but Karen pointing out that Peter talked about Ned like he had Liz made him super conscious about everything he said to the other boy and it was just easier not to instigate conversation while he was still trying to figure everything else out.

It just sucked that Ned was the only one he texted that would understand and sympathize with him about how annoying adults could be. MJ generally responded to Peter complaining with the middle finger emoji or a gif telling him to fuck off and the only other people he texted were adults and by the very nature of adulthood, they were not going to be sympathetic to a teenager’s complaint about them.

And so Peter found himself standing outside Mr. Stark’s lab annoyed at both the woman in the elevator for her obvious disapproval and at Karen for making him feel too awkward around his best friend to text him about her. He tried to push all the negative thoughts from his mind as he swiped his badge across the access pad next to the door to the lab and tapped in his personal security code.

He was mostly successful at burying all of his unwanted thoughts – only a small nagging feeling remained in the back of his mind - and he was even smiling slightly when F.R.I.D.A.Y. called out a greeting to him. It would take a lot more than a possible crush on his best friend and a rude elevator lady to keep him down when he was about to enter one of the best labs in the entirety of the United States and Peter felt nearly at peace for the first time all week as he entered it. The lab took up nearly all of the top floor and it was Peter’s favorite place in the entire world. Everything in it was high tech, probably cost a million dollars apiece, and always managed to make him feel excited, even on an off day.

Mr. Stark himself was sitting at the large central work table, pouring over some holographic diagrams of what looked like the latest model of the Stark phone. He hadn’t looked up when F.R.I.D.A.Y. had welcomed Peter but he did once the boy started walking towards him.

“Hey Kid,” he greeted Peter as he pressed down on the diagrams. Neatly, they disappeared. Peter frowned at that. Mr. Stark hardly ever stopped his work when Peter walked in – he generally preferred to wave Peter over to whatever he wanted him to work on or gesture to an empty chair for Peter to wait until he had finished the step he was on. It was weird for him to stop immediately. It made Peter feel instinctively nervous, which was ridiculous because Peter hadn’t done anything wrong. At least not that he knew of.

“Hey Mr. Stark. What’s up?” Peter tried to keep his voice light as he plopped down into his customary seat. Mr. Stark turned to look at him and he bit back a gulp. Maybe he had done something wrong during one of his patrols and hadn’t even realized because he had been distracted.

“Nothing much,” Mr. Stark replied in a would-be casual voice. “What about you? Anything you want to talk about, Pete?” Peter had definitely done something. That was Mr. Stark’s faux-casual-shoe’s-about-to-drop voice. And he only called Peter “Pete” or “Peter” when he was being serious. Peter decided to play innocent as he wracked his brain for what he could have done. He hadn’t been hurt on patrol at all that week, except for an unpleasant encounter with the corner of a wall when he had misjudged the distance between one building and the other as he was swinging home, but that had only left a few bruises and was hardly worth Mr. Stark’s faux-casual tone.

“Not that I can think of. It’s just been the same old this week.” Except for the whole possibly liking Ned thing, but he highly doubted Mr. Stark knew anything about that unless Karen had told him. If she did, Peter was so finding out how to delete her from the suit.

“Same old, huh? You sure? There’s no – I don’t know – _teenage stuff_ , I guess – bothering you?” Peter had been staring interestedly at the steel work table but he looked up at Mr. Stark as his words hit him. Mr. Stark shrugged unapologetically. “Happy might have texted me after he dropped you off. He mentioned you were being all quiet and not at all annoying, which is super unlike you as I’m sure you’re aware, so I figured I’d ask about what’s bothering you. It goes with the mentor-territory.”

“I can’t believe you guys text about me!” Peter couldn’t help but groan, exasperated. “That’s a total invasion of privacy!” This was supposed to be his break from his week; Mr. Stark was the last person he’d expect to notice and ask about what was bothering him. The man was a genius but he tended to avoid heart-to-hearts at all cost. Peter was half-sure that he’d claim to be allergic to them if the prospect of one ever came up.

“Of course we text about you, Pete. We all do – me, Hot Aunt May, Happy. Got a group text and everything.” Peter really hoped that wasn’t true. The idea of his aunt, Mr. Stark and Happy of all people talking about him in any capacity was quite terrifying. “So. What’s bugging the Spider-ling? Is that as- kid Eugene giving you problems again?” Peter slumped down in his seat. Mr. Stark was obviously not going to let this go.

“Flash has been fine. I mean, he’s Flash so he’s always kind of a jerk, but he hasn’t been more of one lately. And he’s stopped telling everyone I was lying about the internship.” That had been largely thanks to Mr. Stark. When Peter had first started regularly meeting with Mr. Stark, Ned had freaked out about it at school. Flash had overheard and had resumed his taunting about how fake the Stark Internship was. It had gotten bad enough that Principal Morita himself had called Peter in his office to ask him if he was telling the truth or spreading rumors for attention. He had been kind about it but Peter had been so mortified by the situation and so desperate to prove to his principal that he wasn’t lying that had asked Mr. Stark to write a formal acceptance letter so he could show the other man.

Mr. Stark had sent Happy in an official Stark Industries vehicle to pick Peter up from school that Friday and, in full view of a good half of the school including Flash and Mr. Morita, Happy had quite loudly yelled that Peter needed to hurry up because Mr. Stark was waiting for him at Stark Industries. It had been a very sweet thing that Mr. Stark and Happy had done for him, but it had also been completely embarrassing and Peter really didn’t want Mr. Stark to hatch any new plans just because he thought Peter was being harassed at school again.

“Okay, not Eugene then. But definitely something.” Mr. Stark picked up a pen and then poked Peter with it. “I’m going to keep bothering you until you say what’s bugging you kid, so just spill it. Then we can pretend this never happened and get back to the cool stuff.” He poked Peter again for good measure. Peter rolled his eyes and pushed his chair out of the older man’s reach.

“It’s nothing Mr. Stark, really. No one is bothering me at school or as Spider-Man. Can we get to the cool stuff now? I really want to show you the preliminary diagrams I made for the robot.” Peter went to pick up his bag, hoping to draw Mr. Stark away from the conversation. He couldn’t imagine Mr. Stark really wanted to know about what was bothering him – it wasn’t life-threatening in anyway and was totally not a big deal.

Mr. Stark responded by poking him again with his pen, this time aiming for Peter’s side. Peter yelped and dropped his bag when Mr. Stark hit the half-healed bruise from his encounter with the wall and shot an annoyed look at the older man who merely smiled in return.

“I’m the adult here, I will decide what’s something and what’s nothing.”

“You aren’t acting like an adult,” Peter grumbled back, rubbing at the sore spot. Mr. Stark poked _hard_.

“As the only person in this room who can drive without the law requiring someone else’s presence, I get to determine what is adult behavior, kid. Now spill about what’s bothering you or I’m going to send you home and text Hot May that something’s wrong with you.” Mr. Stark threatened. Peter looked up at him, eyes wide. He really didn’t want to be sent home and he knew Mr. Stark wouldn’t hesitate if he thought it would be best for Peter. “No puppy dog eyes. You can either tell me, who you only see once a week and who can then teach you awesome stuff until you forget your problems, or you can tell your Aunt who you see every single day and who would probably make you talk about your feelings afterwards. Choose now. You have until the count of five.”

“Mr. Stark, really, you don’t want to hear abou-” Peter tried, raising his hands up in a placating gesture.

“One.”

“Honestly, it’s not a big deal!” Peter gestured wildly, nearly knocking his hand into Mr. Stark.

“Two.”

“Mr. Stark, please just drop it!”

“Three.” Mr. Stark raised three fingers for emphasis. “Four!”

“Okay, _fine_! I’ll tell you! Just – just stop counting!” Peter nearly yelled. Mr. Stark immediately dropped his hand back down and stared expectedly at the younger boy. Peter groaned and put his head in his hands. He was half-tempted to come up with some lie but he feared Mr. Stark would sniff it out and send Peter home immediately. He wasn’t even sure why he was so against telling Mr. Stark – it wasn’t like the man could judge him for maybe having a crush on someone – Peter had seen the magazine articles and knew that Mr. Stark was hardly an innocent man. He also knew that Mr. Stark would probably have no problem with Peter possibly crushing on another boy – he had named the Trevor Project as the main beneficiary of his charity gala that year and there was a rather lengthy video on Youtube where Mr. Stark was just trashing a senator who had made a speech against protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination. And he was right that it would be easier to tell Mr. Stark, who didn’t know Ned apart from what Peter had told him, than it would be to tell Aunt May and then have to worry about her letting it slip every time Ned was in the apartment.

“Anytime now, kid.” Mr. Stark prodded, voice slightly gentler than it had been while he was counting down.

“Alright, but you can’t laugh, okay?” Peter peeked out from his fingers, already feeling a blush form on his cheeks. Mr. Stark perked up at his words, a wide grin forming on his face.

“It’s embarrassing, isn’t it? I love when it’s embarrassing. Makes my day.”

“Oh God, just send me home!” Peter retorted, taking his hands from his face so he could make a face at the older man. Mr. Stark’s smile grew wider.

“I’m just teasing, Pete. Well, for the most part, if it’s anything like your Spider-Man fails on Youtube, I can’t promise I won’t laugh, but I’ll try.”

“It’s got nothing to do with Spider-Man. Just boring teenager stuff. It’s not even going to be interesting.” Peter couldn’t help but try to weasel his way out again. Mr. Stark just tutted at him. Peter groaned again. “Fine! It’s just – I can’t believe I’m telling Iron Man this, this sucks so much -”

“Kid, I _will_ start counting again.”

“ImighthaveacrushonsomeoneandIdon’tknowhowtofigureitout.” Peter let out in one long sentence. Mr. Stark stared at him.

“You might want to put that into actual English. I understood literally none of that. It _was_ English, right?” Peter threw his head back in annoyance.

“I said I might have a crush on someone and I don’t know how to figure out how I feel! Happy?” Peter looked away from Mr. Stark, cheeks blazing. The older man, for his part, seemed speechless. It was obvious that whatever he had thought Peter was going to say, it hadn’t been that. Peter felt slightly vindicated that he had managed to render the great Tony Stark speechless, but he mostly just felt embarrassed. How uncool was he that he couldn’t even figure out his own emotions and had to share with them with Tony Stark? Granted, the man had given Peter no choice, but it was still mortifying. “So, like I said, not a big deal.” Peter spoke, eyes fixed determinedly on the table in front of him. “Can we do the cool stuff now and forget we ever had this conversation?”

Mr. Stark took another moment to respond. “Well – I have to admit talking about high school crushes is not my forte – but, maybe we should talk about it? People talk about these things, right?” Peter couldn’t help the slightly disbelieving laugh that came from him. He felt a little mean about it, because Mr. Stark was trying, but it was such an unbelievable situation. Iron Man and Spider-Man sitting in one of the most technologically advanced laboratories in the world, talking about _feelings_. It was the beginning of a bad joke.

“I’m serious, Peter.” Mr. Stark said and Peter waved his hand in an apologetic gesture, still refusing to look up from the table. There was a very interesting scratch that ran down the length of it. “This is something that is bothering you and it’s affecting your life. You might not think it’s a big deal now, but distraction can affect your Spider-Man duties and your aunt will have my head, not to mention other certain other pieces of me, on a platter if you get hurt.”

“I thought the benefit of telling _you_ was that I wouldn’t have to talk about my feelings?” Peter shot back, risking a glance at the older man. At least Mr. Stark looked as uncomfortable as Peter felt.

“You hardly told me anything! You _might_ like someone? How do you not know? It’s always been my experience that these things were fairly obvious – you either think the women is attractive and want to – to date or you didn’t.” It was fairly obvious to Peter that ‘date’ was not the word that Mr. Stark had been thinking about and his blush darkened when the possibility of doing anything like that with Ned came to his mind. “I mean, you knew you liked that one girl well enough. The one you asked to the dance, Lisa or whatever.”

“Liz.” Peter corrected quietly, sill looking at the table. “And if you remember, Mr. Stark, that didn’t turn out well.” He peeked out of the corner of his eye. Mr. Stark had pushed his chair away from the table so that he had a better view of Peter. Peter’s eyes darted back to the table.

“I’ll give you that one.” Mr. Stark responded easily. There was a pause in the conversation. “Is that what’s bothering you? Because you know, statistically speaking it is highly unlikely that this new girl’s father will be a super villain.” Mr. Stark finally said, a surprising softness in his voice. Peter glanced back up again. Mr. Stark’s face was carefully neutral – all amusement from earlier was gone and he was watching Peter through concerned eyes. He wasn’t good at this but he was at least seriously trying and didn’t seem to be just going through the motions. Mr. Stark seemed actually interested in helping Peter work through this and it was that fact that pushed Peter to answer truthfully.

“I’m not worried about _that_.” Images of Ned’s mom flipping Star Wars shaped pancakes on an early Saturday morning while his father helped the boys take down their giant blanket fort came to his mind – there was no way either of the Leeds was secretly evil. “This is just different than with Liz. Me and her weren’t really friends so it was obvious that I – you know – _liked_ her instead of just, liking her. With this…person it’s more difficult. They’re my friend and I thought I liked them as a friend. But then I thought they were going on a date with someone and I just – I felt really _bad_ about it and I didn’t know why, so I talked to Karen about it and she suggested that I liked them – like, as in more than a friend, and I haven’t been able to get that idea out of my head. Even though it’s completely insane – we’re friends!”

Silence greeted Peter’s statement and for a moment he felt panicked. He’d overshared and now Mr. Stark could see what an idiot he was, being distracted all week because he couldn’t decide if he had a crush on his friend or not. How uncool was that? Mr. Stark was going to laugh and send him home because he was such a child. He should have just left without saying anything – Mr. Stark would have been mad at him but he would’ve still had his dignity. Peter’s anxiety welled within the longer Mr. Stark kept quiet and he had been just about to pick up his bag and flee the room when Mr. Stark finally spoke again.

“Well, ignoring the fact that you went to your AI before an actual person – which, ow by the way-” Peter bit back the immediate thought that came to his mind – that Mr. Stark was the very last person who had room to judge about sharing with AIs instead of actual people – as relief rushed through him. Mr. Stark’s tone didn’t seem to imply that he thought Peter was being stupid or childish. Instead, it was almost thoughtful as though Mr. Stark was choosing his words carefully. “it seems a bit obvious that you have a crush. I mean, come on kid, you were jealous she went out on a date. That’s not normal just-friend behavior.” Peter’s heart fluttered at Mr. Stark’s words, but he shook his head in denial.

“I don’t like – I can’t have a crush on a friend!” He knew he sounded a little desperate but he couldn’t help the way his voice rose up as he spoke. Mr. Stark wasn’t supposed to agree with Karen!

“And why not? Lots of the best relationships start as friendships.” Mr. Stark responded. They were almost the same as what Karen had said the week before and Peter’s heart gave another lurch.

“It breaks the friend code.” Peter whispered finally, but he looked back up at the older man. He wasn’t quite sure what he wanted the man to say; wasn’t sure how he felt at that moment. Mr. Stark, for his part, just raised a single eyebrow.

“I can tell you, without a shred of doubt, kid, that is a bullshit excuse. Friends can have crushes on each other and it doesn’t break any rules. Hell, friends can even fall in love with each other and that’s not a bad thing. Actually, it’s a pretty fantastic thing. Me and Pepper were friends for years before we ever dated, and now I can’t imagine a time that I didn’t love her. She’s still my friend – one of my best friends – and she also happens to be my future wife. It’s the best of both worlds, Pete. No shame in that.” Mr. Stark paused for a moment as Peter stared, wide-eyed at him. Peter knew, of course, that Mr. Stark was marrying Miss Potts – they’d announced it the same day Mr. Stark had tested him with that fake invitation to join the Avengers. He’d even known, dimly in the back of his mind where all the other facts about Mr. Stark’s life that didn’t directly pertain to Iron Man were placed, that Mr. Stark and Miss Potts had known each other for a long time before dating. But he hadn’t realized they’d been friends then.

“I didn’t know that.” Peter said quietly. He was still staring at Mr. Stark. That had been the most the older man had shared about his own personal life – he was a talkative but intensely private man and Peter had never wanted to pry, not even to ask him about what the other Avengers were like because he knew it was still a very sore subject to his mentor – and Peter couldn’t help but feel a little honored that Mr. Stark had opened up to him. It made him feel a little less embarrassed about being forced to talk about his own emotions and it gave him a little more courage to ask questions. He no longer felt that the fact that Ned was his best friend should be a deterrent for having a crush – Mr. Stark was marrying one of his, after all – but he still wasn’t sure how to tell the difference between the two emotions. He didn’t think jealousy was an emotion brought on only by romantic feelings.

“How’d you know?” He asked, once he’d drawn up enough confidence. Mr. Stark shot him a questioning look and he hastened to elaborate. “That you liked Miss Potts as more than a friend?”

“Ah.” Mr. Stark leaned back in his chair again. “Well. It wasn’t obvious at first. I knew I liked her the first time I saw her trying to barrel past my bodyguards.” The shock on Peter’s face must have been obvious as Mr. Stark laughed and elaborated. “She wasn’t trying to kill me or anything kid, wipe that look off your face. She’d discovered a huge error in our accounting and had rushed to tell me. Even threatened the bodyguards with pepper spray if they didn’t let her see me – she was driven and determined. I hired her on the spot as my personal assistant. After that, she was just around all the time. I wasn’t easy to deal with by any means but she stuck around and we became friends. Then, I went to Afghanistan. You know what happened there.” Peter nodded quickly. He wouldn’t ask Mr. Stark to relive that for anything – he knew what it was like to have a painful memory.

“I came back and everything felt different. I changed the direction of the company and got a lot of heat for it. Pepper stayed by me, even defended my ideas. After a while, it became obvious that she was a lot more of a friend to me. I finally admitted it to myself when she stole my heart.” Mr. Stark smiled then, at the look of confusion on Peter’s face.

“Literally. Well, sort of literally. I needed her help replacing the arc reactor in my chest – one in Afghanistan wasn’t as good as one I could make in my actual lab. She had small hands, steadier than DUM-E’s. I needed her to reach into my chest to attach the new core. Then I told her to toss the old core. She had it framed instead, sent it back to me as proof that Tony Stark has a heart. I knew I loved her then.” Peter was awed. He was half-sure Mr. Stark had never told that story before – Peter had certainly never read it in any magazine or heard about it on any talk show. The fact that he had told it to Peter just because he asked sent a warm feeling through him.

Still, it hadn’t really helped Peter. He and Ned had done nothing like that. Unless one counted Ned saving him from the Shocker with his web-shooters. “I haven’t been through anything like that, Mr. Stark.” He admitted finally. The older man just laughed.

“I’d hope not, kid. But yeah, I guess that story wasn’t super helpful for you to figure out your feelings. Also, that was an exclusive – never heard before. Don’t sell it to the papers unless they offer at least 130,000.”

Peter flushed immediately and raised his hands. “I’d _never_ , Mr. Stark!” He squeaked, flailing his hands emphatically. Mr. Stark laughed harder.

“It was just a joke, kid. You’d have to be able to talk to people without freaking out to sell a story. Anyway, let’s get all your teenage feelings figured out so we can pretend this heart-to-heart never happened. I’m allergic to all of your teenager ridiculous – I can feel the hives coming on.” Mr. Stark faked scratching at his neck and Peter flushed.

“I don’t know how I feel. They’re my friend – I like them. I don’t know if it’s a different kind of like than my other friends or not.” Peter admitted. That was the crux of the problem – he knew he liked Ned, even loved him. He just didn’t know if what he felt was romantic or platonic.

“Well, pushing aside the fact that you apparently have multiple friends, there’s a couple easy questions we can ask here. Do you get excited when you see them?” Peter decided to ignore Mr. Stark’s insult to focus on the rest of what the man had said. The question seemed deceptively simple. Of course he got excited when he saw Ned – they’d been friends for ages. Mr. Stark must have known what the look on Peter’s face meant because he was quick to clarify. “I’m not talking about your normal bouncing-off-the wall- annoying-everyone-around-you excitement. I’m talking a kind that you only feel around them. Like everything’s about to be an adventure – the fun kind, not the terrifying-going-to-die-any-minute kind. Where you feel safe because this person would never do anything to hurt you and you also feel secure, because no matter what others think of you, you know this girl likes you for you. Annoying habits and all. The kind of excitement no one else can make you feel.”

Peter thought about his mentor’s words, blushing slightly. That was exactly the way he felt around Ned. No one made him feel as secure or as excited to be around as Ned did, not even Aunt May. Aunt May was wonderful and Peter knew he could share anything with her and she wouldn’t judge him. But with Ned it was different. Peter couldn’t describe how exactly, but it was.

“That goofy smile on your face is a yes.” Mr. Stark’s words brought Peter back from his thoughts and his blush, a near-constant now, darkened. He hadn’t even realized he’d been smiling. “Second question, although it’s pretty obvious we don’t need it, do you miss this girl when she’s not around when she’s supposed to be? Not a general miss either, like how you miss your aunt after a long trip. The kind where she’s only been absent for a class or so but you feel a little lost without her there. Like something’s off-kilter when she’s not around.”

Another nail on the head. That had been how Peter felt when Ned had been hanging out with Ned. He blinked. Then he blinked again as Mr. Stark’s words sank in. Then he blinked a third time as he finally admitted to himself what it all meant.

“Holy shit.” Peter looked up at Mr. Stark again, eyes wide and cheeks cherry red. “Holy _shit_ , Mr. Stark.” The genius just laughed.

“Holy shit is right kid. You got a crush and you got one bad. Thank me at your wedding. Can we pretend this never happened now? God, I feel like such a dad.” Mr. Stark made a face and Peter couldn’t help but laugh despite himself. He felt like a weight had been lifted off him while at the same time like he’d been hit by a car.

He liked Ned. He had a _crush_ on Ned. A giant crush on him. And Tony Stark of all people helped him realize it.

What even was his life?

“Come on now, kid. Plans out. Let’s get this robot going.” Peter shook his head slightly, trying to shake out the mess of his emotions, and grabbed for his bag. Wordlessly, he set the papers down in front of Mr. Stark. He barely noticed as his mentor picked them up to look at them. He had a crush. On Ned. What was he supposed to do with _that_?

“-the overall design’s not bad, just a few tweaks here and there – and you aren’t even listening to me, are you?” Mr. Stark’s exasperated tone finally caught Peter’s attention. He looked at the older man guiltily. Mr. Stark sighed and put the papers back down. “We aren’t going to get anything done now, are we? This is why I don’t have heart-to-hearts. So much easier just to pretend emotions don’t exist in the lab, this is the last time I let Happy guilt me into talking to you about this kind of thing.” Mr. Stark grumbled the last part as he shoved Peter’s plans back at him. “I’m sure you have questions now. Ones that _I_ have to answer.”

Peter looked at his papers guiltily as he drew them towards himself and held them to his chest. “Just one, Mr. Stark.” He said quietly, peeking up at the older man hopefully. He was surprised but grateful that Mr. Stark was allowing him time to talk about this revelation. Even if they were both going to pretend it never happened the next time they saw each other, it was a very nice gesture.

Mr. Stark raised his head in a go-ahead gesture. Peter steeled himself.

“How do I tell them?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Thanks for reading this and I hope you guys liked it! It turned out way longer than I was expecting it to, but it was really fun to write Tony and Peter together, although I'm not sure if I captured Tony quite right. It was also fun to write about Peter finally admitting his ridiculously huge crush. The next one, if anyone is interested, should be up soon!


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